Griselda's prison sentence: How long was the Cocaine Godmother imprisoned?

The Netflix series Griselda has shocked and delighted fans who now want to know about Griselda's prison sentence.

As Netflix's Griselda ending shows, ultimately Griselda Blanco was arrested for her crimes and was incarcerated for several years. However thanks to Rivi in Griselda manufacturing a sex scandal that discredited his account and therefore the Cocaine Godmother's case, she managed to avoid ramifications for a lot of her crimes. So how long did she actually spend in prison? And what is the timeline of her incarceration? Here's what you need to know...

Griselda Blanco: The Cocaine Queen, £14.90 | Amazon

This book from Henri Dauber explores Griselda Blanco's whole life including her early childhood in Medellin and her ultimate demise at age 69.

When was Griselda arrested?

In the series, Griselda chooses to be arrested rather than face the wrath of the Ocheo cartel following the death of their cousin Marta. Griselda was arrested in a California townhouse in Irvine, Orange County on February 17th 1985, just two days after her 42nd birthday.

Bob Palombo, the Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent who arrested Griselda told The Independent about the moment he arrested her in California. "She was pretty tough and standoffish, a typical Colombian move I would say, nonchalant, not really showing any real emotion, but when we put her in the car, I was in the backseat with her, and the other agent was driving. We drove up to Los Angeles, and when we got close to the courthouse is when she became visibly shaken," he recalled.

"I mean, visibly shaken, she was shaking, and she grabbed my arm and you could feel her shaking and she turned and she threw up on my shoulder. Not a lot, it was mostly just bile, but she knew the proverbial s**t had hit the fan. And it was time for her to meet her accusers," he said.

How long was Griselda in prison?

The Netflix series accurately showed that Griselda Blanco was arrested and imprisoned in 1985 where she spent 13 years in federal custody before she was handed over to the Florida authorities. She was then set to face capital punishment, but following Rivi from Griselda's sex scandal, the case against her was weakened.

Per the Miami Herald, she cut a new plea deal in 1998 with Orlando Special Prosecutors and was given three concurrent 20-year sentences. In 2002 she suffered from a heart attack and her health began deteriorating, leading to an early release.

Ultimately Griselda spent 19 years in prisons in California and Florida.

When was Griselda released from prison?

Griselda was released from prison in 2004 and was deported to Medellin in Colombia. She lived in Colombia as a free woman for eight years until she was assassinated on September 3rd 2012.

Detective Bob Palombo also told The Independent that at the time of her death she hadn't been living in fear of her enemies at all, in fact she was just living a quiet ordinary life.

"She wasn’t hiding. Not at all. She was killed at the marketplace, the butcher shop, and according to my sources, she lived a well-respected life in the community. She was supposedly very benevolent to the downtrodden and that may have been a reason that a lot of people didn’t bother with her," he said.